Too often, in situations like this, the victims become defined by how they died. But to the people who knew and loved them, they aren't just names on a list of the dead, a curiosity in the news.
They're individuals, precious and irreplaceable. Even in the midst of this deepest grief, the victims should be remembered for how they lived and their lives should be celebrated.
The profiles are very brief, but they do serve to humanize the victims. -- Bradley Schultz, Lindsey Stahl, Jordanne Murray, Aaron Smith, Leanna Thomas, Katrina McCorkle, and Charlie Neitzel.
(Excerpts)
BRADLEY SCHULTZ
Bradley Schultz, 20, was a third-year criminal justice major at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He wanted to be a homicide detective, said his aunt, Rose Gerow of Crandon.
Another aunt, Sharon Pisarek, said Schultz had been home from college visiting his friends and died trying to protect one.
"We still don't have many details, but from what they've told us, there was a girl next to him and he was covering her, protecting her," she said, sobbing. "He was loved by everybody. He was everybody's son."
LINDSEY STAHL
The 14-year-old. a freshman and the youngest of the victims, was a vegetarian, said her mother, Jenny Stahl, 39.
"She didn't eat meat," Stahl said. "That is what a lot of people know her for. She was an animal rights activist."
She also was interested in global warming, said her half-brother, Ryan Coulter, 12. "She probably would have changed the world, you know," he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
JORDANNE MURRAY
Jordanne Murray loved children and hoped to be a daycare provider, said Sally Maxon, whose daughter had been best friends with her since kindergarten.
...Murray was a good writer who had played sports in high school.
AARON SMITH
Aaron Smith was a happy-go-lucky guy, who embraced his nickname "Chunk," said Derek Dehart, who went to Crandon High School with him.
"You almost never saw him without a smile," he said.
Smith and Bradley Schultz played on the football team with Dehart and helped the team to its first-ever playoff win their senior year, he said.
"He always joked around and had a good time, and even when he got mad, you knew he would never hurt a fly," Dehart said.
LEANNA THOMAS
Leanna Thomas sang with her identical twin Lindsey in the church choir, their voices merging beautifully, said Sjana Farr, wife of Bill Farr, pastor at Praise Chapel Community Church.
...The twins were in band and theater and played volleyball, baseball and basketball together. They were lively and artistic and made people around them feel good, Farr said.
KATRINA McCORKLE
Katrina McCorkle, 18, Katrina McCorkle, 18, was a senior. A former boyfriend said she and Murray were longtime friends. McCorkle loved playing softball and had been thinking about what college she might attend, he said, adding that "her family meant everything to her."
CHARLIE NEITZEL
Twenty-one-year-old Charlie Neitzel, who was injured in the shooting, was a goofy guy and a good friend of Aaron Smith's, said Derek Dehart, who went to high school with him. The two always went to parties together, he said.
"He was always able to make somebody laugh," he said.
Long after the media have retreated and the satellite trucks roll away, the community of Crandon, the families and the friends, will be left to deal with their enormous losses.
For them, the shootings are so much more than a temporary "top story" in the news.
_____________________
Tyler Peterson's family and friends are grieving, too. The burden they have to carry must be unbearable.
CRANDON, WIS. -- There are no strangers in tragedy in a town this small.
Susan Hill, the co-owner of the only mortuary here, knew Tyler Peterson, the 20-year-old lawman who fired a fusillade into a room filled with seven young people early Sunday, killing six and wounding one. Hill also knew one of his victims. Both were related to Hill by blood or marriage.
On Monday, as this heartbroken town grappled with the enormity of the rampage that ended with Peterson's death during a standoff with police, Hill wasn't taking sides -- and neither were many others.
It was all too sad.
..."All the boys grew up together in this town. That's what happens when you have a graduating class of about 63 people," said Sjana Farr, the wife of a local pastor. Her son, Jonathan, a corporal in the Marines, was returning on emergency leave to grieve with his high school mates -- for Peterson and two of his victims, Bradley Schultz, 20, and Aaron "Chunk" Smith, 20.
"Jon and Tyler, Chunk and Schultzy -- they hunted together, they skied together, they cruised up and down the streets together," Farr said. "That's what makes it so hard, that he's one of us, he is one of ours. And we won't turn our back on him."
No comments:
Post a Comment